Paulaner on Bowery

 

 

The food prices here are absurd and the food didn't really impress me. Gotta throw that out there.

A really nice space though and pretty big considering the area. Definitely has the German biergarten feel.

They have a few beers that you won't find in stores so that's cool. Worth dipping into for a beer if you're in the area and could easily be part of an East Village/LES bar crawl.

 

I went here for Oktoberfest. Big German style beer hall. They brew their beers on the premises and all beers are by Paulaner. Authentic german food; I had a nice bratwurst. A cool place that I'd like to come back to on a regular night or day when it's less crowded.

 

 

 

All afternoon, they were emailing back and forth about some very inconveniently located this week’s newly opened German beer hall joint way the hell downtown. I was not thrilled. And then somehow the plan changed up to Paulaner, and I was feeling better about things in general. This, an easy hop over the Williamsburg to Bowery hook north. Arrived early and parked the next block over on Chrystie, and got to walk up Stanton past that place long gone where I nearly got locked in the basement with Trouble that night, or early morning as it was. Paulaner; just south of Houston on Bowery in no man’s land…

Two room split; bar to the left & dining side to the right. I took the road less far to the bar; a wide slat laminate topped wood bar rounded out to a lip, wood panel base, & foot box; seating for a dozen on hightop red leather chairs. Barback wall of brick with a fit wood unit fronting. A large center cut through and smaller ones to both sides hold shelved steins & glassware (house logo 1L, .5L, & cool tall .3L glasses) and vertical cuts in between with more. Tiered booze countered, and lots of glassware shelved below around the cooler space. Further down, 5 fermenters back the rear bar extension; counter space seating there for a ½ dozen on red leather stools, and more of them same adjacent along the stairwell to the basement banquet space; a dozen+ tables down there. And baker’s half dozen tables to the rear; 4 rectangular and 3 roundies forward them.

Slab concrete floor, white walls painted, & a black ceiling. Baby spots from the overhang, drop hairdryer lamps over the bar, chandeliers over the stairwell, and logo’d glass candles along the bar, bar counter, & tables. Paulaner print up front and an unnecessary lamp post. Out in the middle of the floor sits a pair of copper bright shiny logo’d mash tuns. Mounted stag’s head over the stairwell and a flat screen to the rear.

Side room holds a pair of fermenters and a bunch more to the rear behind glass. Wood slat floors, a brick outer wall, light inners over wood panel lowers, and a dark ceiling with suction cup drop lamps. 2 dozen + tables in clean rows or riddled about up front. Large framed Paulaner prints over the tables on the far wall sharing beige benching, and elsewhere throughout the room; a few Paulaner prints, something Salvator framed, and a tin.

4 house beers dispensed from a cool sprawling copper badass 8 tower awesomeness on the bar (Hefeweizen, 5.3%, bananana clovey sulfur nose Hefeness; Munich Lager, 4.9%, clean, it’s a nice effin’ lager, I could drink a lot of this; Munich Dark, 4.9%, okay, this is totally what I want in a dunkel; Winter Beer, 6.5%, a dark malt bomb bock). Tough to sort out which would be the weakest link. Munich Lager and the Winter Beer were the best of ‘em, but there was nothing of the suck here. And nine wines for the having at if you need ‘em.

All drafts are $8 for .3L, $9 for .5L, and $18 for the full 1L (Hmmm, $8 for the 10oz glass or $9 for the pint, tough one). Seems they do a 2 for 1 on drafts at some time on some days, unless they’re just making that up, not sure.

So, there will be Bavarian pretzels, as we are the hungry 5. They were hot; I had to wait but did not want to. Served up with 3 mustards; the chunky one was king in my opinion, although Ben is being judgeybear. And for dinner proper, I will have the wienerschnitzel (like there was any question there). Served with some sort of berry accompaniment, a cucumber salad, & I traded up the pot salad for spaetzle ‘cause I could. Schnitzel was awesome, the cuc salad dilly good, and the spaetzle was solid. Good food here.

Spoke with Rudy. He gave us the quick tour and said that the Salvator (he pronounced it ‘Sal-vah-tor’) was up next and then a seasonal Dunkelweizen. I’m sorry; did you say Salvator is being made here? Whaaat? So who’s brewing exactly? Some schlocky newby homebrewer kid? Nah, just a guy who’s been brewing at Paulaner for 17 years, now, and uh, did I mention fresh goddamn Salvator a-comin’?

Upscale, clean, sharp looking place (although I’m hearing they renovated and all that I saw may be no more). They’re playing a whole lot of 80’s this dead Monday night. I even made a Boomtown Rats song come on (with my mind). Good eats, solid beer, nice folks. Courtney doled out the pain we deserved for Ben wearing a checkered shirt mockingly. This place kicks Hofbrauhaus NYC’s ass in a street fight.